It was a dark night above the jail, Cremsey could see that now as someone had oh so conveniently blown a hole in the top of the prison's roof. Smiling madly he rushed towards the area where his target was being held, invisibly dodging past the ignorant fools as he raised a blaster towards what looked to be a small obstacle in his way.

A small security team of four trying to create a choke point in the cell block's third floor. The entrance to where he knew his target was. Seeing no other recourse at the moment, he sighted down at the base of the first of the four man squad, and fired, the greenish bolt of plasma taking the unfortunate man's head off his shoulders.

Before the others could respond he was on the next one, lashing out with a sideways kick of his foot to send the man over the edge of one of the prison's balcony that ringed the gangway between the levels.

The third tried to swing a stun baton at his direction, but he merely stepped back and shot three bolts into the man's chest before reaching the last one who was wheeling in his direction.

This one followed suit as he gave no mercy, his pistol barking in it's rapport. The flashes could be seen down below by Rei as a clear sign of an escalation amidst the mass of chaos.

ver his earbud the irate tone of that IntOrg Agen came to his ears, "Cremsey, report, are you at the target's location?"

By the time the nearest security rounded upon the position where he had been, he was already on the other side of the balcony storming into the wing which held Devaron. Knowing that if he didn't hurry any number of assorted mercs would be fast on his heels.

He read the cell numbers as he passed, skidding to a halt beside one where he saw a man holding an improvised weapon.

"Lorat Devaron?" he hissed harshly.

"Who are you, NRI? I'm not going back! You'll have to kill me first!"

With a grunt of disatisfaction, the former shadow hand assumed he found his mark if the NRI comment was right. Without further ado, Cremsey came to a decision, switching the toggle on his blaster for stun he raised it and fired once.

Devaron Crumpled.

He hoisted the man in a fireman's carry, and took out a testing device he had to read the subject's dna. He needed to be absolutely sure he had the right mark.

A drop of blood was all it needed, as the needle of the hypoinjector beeped. "Sending data to you now over the subspace com Mortist," he somnambulated. "check if this is the guy."

"Roger, Cremsey."

He lifted the man in a fireman's carry and stalked to the doorway, gazing left and right as he determined the best avenue of egress. "Mortist, did the asset already get out?""Yes, she's linking back up with us now, took a detour through a clothing chute on the second level. "

'Well that's one asset he couldn't burn to help cover the escape.'

The compound of the cell block was filling with more and more tactical teams as biosensors registered the ceased lifesigns of the guards."I suggest using that or the secondary roof accessway as a viable egress."

'Technically there was already roof access so long as he counted the giant new skylight.'

Four more sets of boots rung off the metal gangways as mercenaries from above stormed in."Moving. "

He barely took a step outside as he noticed a blur of motion to his left before it battered him back into the room. On impact, his optical camoflauge stuttered.

Devaron fell hard to the ground as he began to wrestle with the unknown.

"Sitrep Cremsey?!?! Why haven't you started exfiltration yet?"

He kneed the shadowy figure in the groin before trying to make a grab at the person's head to push a finger into their eye.

"I'm a little busy here!"

~~~ooo~~~

She had taken the shortest route of egress to get back here.

Moira slid down the rope and came to a rather soft stop at the bottom of the sewer way. To the right of her lay Mortist looking at his datapad, as it was connected to another device she couldn't place. The machine made a bunch of low pitched beeps and whistles before something was displayed on the screen.

The ISIS agent took a look at it and stopped, simply staring at it for a little longer before cursing softly. "I can't believe this shyte faced NRI prick has signs he's a god damn genetically altered human clone. Force damn it all!"

He looked over in her direction and sighed as Moira arched an eyebrow at him. Her masked features couldn't really convey the question, but he answered it anyways. "You know I'd have thought any snags on this mission might have come from your direction. But rather it's just strange that the snags are coming from something else."

"Any hints on what that means?"

"D.N.A. Marker's are classified, but I got a complete match." Moira saw the IntOrg Agent raise his head to his earpiece and depress it, "You might be a little busy Cremsey, but the target is confirmed as Devaron, I repeat the target is confirmed."

'Well at least it wasn't her luck going haywire here.' Though it had surprised her when she had realized the chaos which had been unleashed due to her task. "Orders, Sir?"

"Go back to the hotel while the mission's carried out here. Don't let anyone see you, and keep cloaked till you turn the hardware over to my partner that's waiting there. We need you with plausible deniability for the next phase."

Well that was a rather curious answer. "Next phase , Sir?"

"Need to know, but Eva has the details. Now Go down the passageway, first fork left there's a manhole with street access about two hundred meters. Once street side, you should be able to see the hospital, head there on your own. Your priority is to return to the hotel and await further orders."

With a nod, and more then a few questions, Moira toggled the camoflauge back on and began to traipse towards the indicated position. One thing was for sure, she would be happy to be able to finally breathe some fresh air on this mission.

Being late was nothing particularly new for Rei, blaster bolts starting to fly as the place was becoming a swirling melee as the prison guards were starting to come enmasse, firing indiscriminately now. Reaching the cell, Rei saw her mark on the ground, unconscious along with two others caught in a scuffle. Before she could make sense of the scene, a pair of blaster bolts flew past, striking the duracrete wall just beside her head. Reflexively ducking down, Rei trained her own pistol over in the direction the shots came from and fired. A passing prisoner took a bolt to the leg and slammed into the ground hard. "Not my fault," Rei said as though it mattered, not letting up from the trigger as she caught a glimpse of an armoured figure training a blast cannon in her general direction. Realizing she had no real cover, she moved for the target she was here to retrieve, hoping the person with the cannon wouldn't risk shooting in fear of killing the person they were after.

The gambit worked as she avoided the two men fighting one another, still firing a flurry of shots at the merc with the heavy ordinance. One shot managed to catch the merc in the arm but the thick plating made him shrug off the shots with no ill-effect. He fired a blast, five red blaster bolts flying towards the cell. Rei took cover behind the only thing available, the refresher. It was only now that Rei realized one of the two people still grappling one another was wearing similar armour to the blast cannon toting grunt. The enemy of my enemy? she thought, training her blaster at the other armoured merc and firing. The armour did the job of absorbing the shots well enough, but she hadn't expected her relatively weak pistol to penetrate, but instead she created an opening for the other man to drive his knife through a soft spot in the armour, right in the armpit.

Outside, the blast cannon merc became distracted by a group of inmates who had thoughts that a blast cannon would make a good weapon to try and escape with. The merc was mostly unconcerned though as he unceremoniously put down harboring such thoughts, and even those who were trying to run away. Still, now was a good time to seize the opportunity as she quickly trained her blaster against the guy who had just finished shoving the guy he had been grappling against away. "I take it you're the one who stunned him," she began, willing to wager that the armoured mercs would have sooner bashed him on the head into compliance rather than actually render him unable to move under his own power. At least, that's what I would have done...

He glanced up at her for a brief moment, seeing her blaster trained at him. "Pick him up,[/i] she waved her blaster slightly. "You dropped him, you carry him." He seemed to have no objections at the moment which suited her just fine as he slowly stood up and moved towards Laret. As he did so, she swiftly moved up behind him and relieved him of his blaster pistol as he picked Laret up. "You won't be needing this."

More shots rang out, closer this time, the guards were swiftly advancing. Smoking canisters flew in suddenly, hissing out a thick, white billowing smoke that rapidly expanded. "I hope you have an exit plan."

"I thought you did," the man holding Laret snapped back.

Nothing came to mind, but with the smoke rapidly threatening to cause troubles, the best thing she could come up with was also probably the most dangerous as she pointed to the rapel lines the mercs had used. The mercs were fast getting scattered, the blast cannon wielding foe having been dropped by a well placed shot to the head from a guard with a sniper rifle and some seriously deadly aim. Which means we're next, she realized. The smoke would help them out though, or, at the very least, make them less distinguishable from the rest of the rabble which were scattering all over the place as weapons fire continued to pour all over the place. Fishing a smoke grenade from her belt, Rei mused aloud, "Let's speed things up a little." Pulling the pin, she tossed it between her and the lines where it added to the thickening smoke and tear gas. Reaching for her rebreather, she put it on over her face. "Get moving," she ordered, the guy carrying Laret. Sure, he didn't have to listen, but she could just as easily kneecap him and try persuading the other prisoner to drag her paycheck to the rapel lines but she'd rather keep an extra body between her and the devils with the guns who were treating this whole mess like one giant shooting gallery.

"Next person to tell me I look like hell is going to see what hell really looks like, because I'm sure it's a hell of a lot better than how I feel right now..." - Rei

The smoke cover was only a diversion to him, as he pondered whether or not he should flip his secondary into his palm and shoot this pretentious woman in the back. Even if she had made his life easier that didn't mean she wasn't another expendable asset to burn. Though perhaps he should give her the benefit of the doubt.

'As long as she proved useful.'

He shouldered his way past the black clad woman and spoke his first words to her rather gruffly. "If you needed an extra sidearm, you could of just asked. I've got a few more in hiding places. I might let you figure out where they are later if we're alone." Switching the HUD of the Ex-II's mask to infrared, he flicked his wrist to let his modified DC-15 fall out of it's concealed compartment of the suit's oversized gauntlet. Sighting at a few of the figures he slowly chuckled with glee as he discharged his weapon towards those below the ziplines and the mercenaries covering their buddies from above. The Red, Yellow, and Blue forms falling with grunts as they were shot.

Morosely, he turned it into a game, speaking just loudly enough through the masks voice synthesizer so that only Rei could hear him as the bodies fell and hit the floor. "Einz, Zwei, Drei,Vier, Funf!" The groans of the dying were like music to his ears. A grim reminder of why he missed his missions so much. "Sechs, maybe later sweety I don't know how good you look with all this smoke."

Not bothering to wait for a reply, the man kept counting as his secondary blaster kept firing, "Seiben, and Acht down goes the last one!" a flick of the wrist caused the pistol to re-latch to his gauntlet as he 'holstered' the sidearm. Seemingly without care, the agent stalked forwards to a zip line , only to pause a moment by one of the moaning mercenaries to stomp on his boot for a hidden blade to pop out, which then he proceeded to kick and stab into the fallen man's temple, puraeing the brain. Then he grabbed the line with one hand and turned. "Now can we get out of here Sugah? I'd like to keep you around for a while if you're useful."

He couldn't really see the woman's reactions under the reddish hues of her form, but he didn't need to. "Time's of the essence and if there's any on the roof you'll have to deal with them before a gunship or something else shows up." Through the smoke he could almost feel the woman glare at him a moment, but that was probably his imagination as the potential asset moved forwards to follow him. The ascent up the rope made his arms burn as he hefted Davaron on his shoulder and clamped the mark to his belt with a C-clip. The female made it up first, and he could hear the whine of a blaster pistol up above as he levered himself over.

His subspace comunit seemed to chatter on as he climbed, notifying him on the target's confirmation as he lifted himself up to see the female who helped him early almost brandishing her pistol in his direction. With a hand on her hip the woman quipped. "You missed two."

Without breaking stride, he gave her a quip of his own."My apologies. A true gentleman would never let a lady clean up after his messes. Though truth be told I think your are a quite good enough example of a female whose capable of handling herself."

"Save the compliments. What's next?"

"Who are we hearing over the coms?"

He put two fingers to his mask where an earpiece would be, and spoke loud enough for Rei to hear him. "I've got the package, and a plus one as well, making egress by the roof. I just sent an image of her features to you for identification, so what's the play?"

It was a bluff, he'd have to use his smartchrono for that, but the female didn't need to know that. Nor would she be able to hear who was on the other side of the communication.

There was a slight pause, before a response was heard. "Go to the East Edge of the roof and use your grappel to descend towards the edge of the next district. We'll meet up at Point Bravo to make our way outside the walls to the ship we have waiting for extraction. If you're lucky, we'll deal with the plus one there and her payments if she pans out not to be an NRI plant. Stick to the alleys, but beware the gangs. Word is we're out in force. I'll be blowing the construction mixes in ten seconds after we clear out."

"Understood." Cremsey turned towards back towards Rei and spoke. "There's a rendezvous point for extraction ten blocks from here. We'll take the alleys. Keep up, make yourself useful, and you'll profit, otherwise you'll be left behind."

" I'll also cut the power shunts to the local blocks, It should give you a thirty second cover of darkness before the backups switch on."

The female made as if to speak but Cremsey cut her off. "I don't necessarily care what happens to the bounty or how it's divied out. Hell I'll even get you fifty - fifty if it's going to get your panties in a twist so long as you help keep the target alive. But right now as there's two snipers of my team, which have us in view right now, I would suggest you not do anything funny. They won't be able to cover us for long after they cut the power but they're twitchy on the trigger. So it's time to get your big girl pants on and move out towards the District to the east by the alleyways, you'll have to be the one on guard for the gangs if I'm hauling rip van winkle here. My team says the gangs are out in force tonight, as bitchy as a bunch of bees who have had their honey taken."

He stormed past her, and paused as she spoke a harsh warning. "Wait!"

"Call me Clancy, please."There was a bit of silence there until he repeated his request. "Call me Clancy. I don't necessarily care if I have to call you something, in fact I'll just call you Sugah. Is that okay, partner?" He stressed the last word to give it due evidence. "if you don't want to call me Clancy, Arsehole will do in a pinch, or any other expletive you might come up with."

"You son of -"

"Temper , temper. Just think of the creds. Now it's time to go Sugah. They're blowing the charges." The woman seemed to come into a sort of hyper focus at that, "Yes, I said charges. Move it girl!! Just think of the creds you'll make and move that pretty little ass of yours."

Reaching behind himself , the ex-hand unhooked a grappling spike launcher and strode his way to the East edge of the penitentiary. Down below the streets a dull thud echoed through the ground as tunnels beneath the prison became filled with the fast hardening ceramacrete.

It seemed Mortist was good for his word. Cremsey had to give the puke that much at least.

Without another word, the former shadow hand turned towards nearest entrance to the alleyways and set off as Rei followed after as he aimed the device towards the wall of a far off building , close to the ground. Taking aim, he fired and the distinct sound of pressurized air being released could be heard as the line travel a full eighty seven meters before anchoring to the rooftop of a building in the far off distance. Not wasting time, he hooked the grapnel to the edge of the building and tested the mark's weight one more time as the female began to mutter a bunch of curses under her breath and look around.

Then the lights of every building in three square blocks went out."Time to go."

Using the grapnel's hook, Cremsey hooked onto the line and began to zipline his way down towards the edge, as the line sagged due to another passenger coming from behind him.

It seemed the female had followed. Cremsey looked down the alleyways where some faint glows of fire in the distance could be seen. "I already can tell there's trouble ahead. Protection detail's relying on you girl. Turn right at the second block and it's a ten block straight shot to the rendezvous point and your money We're looking for the processing plant by the city walls."

While the main streets of Devaron's capital city of Montellian Serat would be relatively under control of the populace's legal government, Cremsey knew the same couldn't be said of the relative Labrynth of back alleyways. The city was just too old, and too built up and built over ancient construction for the police to prevent criminal forces from digging in, and creating minor strongholds.

Like the wraiths the two were the two vanished from site, into the darkness. Cremsey Leading, and the female mercenary under a state of heightened alert. In the back of his mind, Cremsey wondered if she'd try to shoot him once or twice before she got there, or try to renegotiate the deal in some way once she was assured she wasn't under a Sniper's eye.The female seemed to growl under her breath and mutter something he couldn't quite understand as his pace began to pick up to a light jog.

"You're not a very talkative one when you're angry , are you?"

"We're taking the speeders we had through the sewers, we'll be at the rendezvous point in three minutes Cremsey."

There were shadow's in every corner of their way forwards, and he'd bet credits to crunchies that a knife was hidden in each one... just the way he liked it. He also wondered if the lady next to him might do him a favor and shoot that prick of an IntOrg agent when she met them... A rather chilling smirk came from behind his mask. Whatever the case happened; this trek with the woman would sure be something interesting.

~~~ooo~~~

It took more then ten minutes for Moira to jog her way back to the hotel under cover of the optical camoflauge, flitting from shadow to shadow and dodging the crowds as the sounds of sirens rang out in the distance. The police forces of the capital were mobilizing to the chaos, and the explosions in the distance combined with holoboards portrayal of exploding cop cars meant that the mercenary groups of before were going nuts trying to get into reach their target. She only vaguely realized that the twisting route the agent had lead her on was misleading in the extreme as she slipped up the stairwell she had walked out of.

Finally when she entered her hotel, she stopped to draw a sidearm and flick the safety off as she heard the sound of a holo in the background. The agent had said his partner was going to be the one giving her details on the next phase, but it wasn't that she could immediately ignore a presence in what was supposed to be a safe place for her.

Padding her way forwards softly, the echani girl flipped the safety back on as she noticed a female lounging on the sofa. Only pausing as it looked like the women was wearing a copy of her own face.
Cursing in her mind she made sure to back away around the corner and flatten herself against the cover of "Don't move, ma'am and please confirm your identity. Are you the Ms. Eva I was told about?"
The woman reacted just as swiftly as Moira would have expected a trained agent should have as she whipped a holdout blaster into her hands. "I don't know. Who are you?""Moira Drakengard, the woman whose face you're currently wearing."

The only thing worse than having your paycheque taken from you was having your paycheque taken from you and still being expected to provide assistance. Rei was tempted to call Clancy on his bluff, the twisting alleys would be nearly impossible to adequately cover even for two snipers. Worse yet, the local authorities would be doing everything in their power to seal off the area within a ten block radius as starfighters and repulsor craft started to fly overhead, bright search lights illuminating dark corners of streets, alleys and roof tops. Like to see his support keep up, she thought to herself, her thumb gently tapping against the selector switch of her pistol as they moved through the alley as quickly as possible. Clancy was carrying the bounty, and it was for that reason alone that Rei held off putting a hole through his head. Though he didn't like to admit it, she didn't have much of an exit plan, especially now that her means of getting away with the bounty under her own power was dashed.

Before she could further entertain the thought of splattering Clancy's innards on the dirty alley pavement, a bright beam of light appeared above them. Rei instinctively ducked for the nearest cover, a metal bin that was thick with grime. She shuddered for a moment, the thought of possibly coming into contact with the fowl substance momentarily overriding her concern for the searchlight that drove her to cover in the first place. She waited, the beam having passed in front of them, possibly catching a glimpse of Clancy's foot perhaps? He had also taken cover in a small recess in a building wall, a sealed door to a building barring him from going any further. The spotlight swept the area momentarily, perhaps the keen eyed co-pilot of the speeder above thinking he had caught something as they passed overhead. Rei glanced down at her blaster and then up in the direction she heard the humming repulsors of the speeder. Even if it were close enough for me to get off a good shot, I'll be shooting into the light so I'll be lucky to hit anything. She was no stranger to night fighting and trying to shoot at someone when a beam of light was being shone in your face wasn't as easy as some people liked to make it sound. Sure, you knew where your target was, but you didn't know where anything vital was. Worse yet, you couldn't see anything but the beam of light which meant you couldn't see how many others were also pointing guns at you.

Something suddenly jumped down from the metal bin onto the ground, startling Rei. It was a spukamas, a feline many people often kept as pets. It glanced at the bright light for a moment before darting off, meowing before disappearing through a small hole in the building Clancy was hiding beside. The spotlight swept the area once more before the light disappeared altogether and the speeder flew away. Too close, Rei breathed before cautiously emerging from her hiding spot.

"Good to see you're quick on your feet as well," Clancy noted.

"Sji'va," Rei muttered in reply, knowing there wasn't much she could say to him that would allow her to get under his skin. They continued their trek through the alley, rapidly approaching the city walls where the processing plant was located. It seemed like a really bad rendezvous point in her mind, if only because it was probably in operation and would have it's own security which would probably be on high alert. Though, in a twisted way, it might also make sense.

The processing plant was an immense facility and it surprised Rei that it would be located so close to such a populated area, with a prison no less. "You're contact is waiting for us there?" she asked, shooting Clancy a quick glance before looking back at the facility. Numerous lights were on in the main office annex and already several law enforcement speeders were outside the main gate, several uniformed devils speaking with similarly dressed devil guards. The place probably had its own emergency power, hence why it was still lit up, and operational if the smoke rising out of the trio of stacks in thick plumes were indication of anything.

"Yep," he replied as though she had simply commented on the weather. He moved ahead, keeping to the shadows as best he could. Despite the body he was carrying, he was surprisingly swift. "We just need a way in," he added, glancing at her as though she had the means to get them inside.

Rei rolled her eyes. "I thought you were the one with snipers," she shot back. The glint in his eyes hinted that it really had been a bluff this whole time. She sighed, not at all surprised by the revelation, as she turned her attention to the task ahead of her. The walls were solid duracrete, ten feet high, probably because whatever the processing plant produced, they didn't want disrupted. Explosives would only attract a legion of devils. Flying in wasn't an option since there weren't any parked speeders near by and she was pretty sure the security system had some sort of means to detect- and possibly stop- airborne traffic. That leaves the front entrance. As much as she loathed the idea, the semblance of an idea came to mind as the law enforcement speeders sped off, the devils having finished their business with the guards and briefing them on the situation.

"Wait here," she breathed as she started walking towards the guard shack, hiding her pistol behind her back as she ran her free hand through her black hair. The guards hadn't yet managed to return to their reinforced shack and, as Rei got closer, she could get a better view of things. There were only two guards, both of them outside and having turned back to return to their posts at the gate. One of them was reaching for a comlink on his belt, probably to give a report to someone in a security room somewhere else in the plant. Before he could grab it, Rei called out suddenly, "Hey!" Both guards stopped suddenly and spun around, one of them instinctively reaching for the sidearm in a holster at his belt. Seeing the waving woman approaching, neither of them drew their weapons but both looked at her suspiciously as she smiled back, continuing her approach.

"What are you doing out here?" one of them demanded, "It's well past curfew, even for tourists."

"Yeah," Rei began, scratching at her face and looking away for a moment as though ashamed to admit that. "I'm actually a little lost and I'm trying to get back to my hotel." She was probably fifteen feet away now, the lights that were shining at her were now angled in such a way that she could better see the two devils standing before her. "If you could point me in the direction of the Hotel Avernus, I'd really appreciate that."

"You should have thought about that before you stayed out partying," one of them snapped back. "It's past curfew, you know the punishment for that. Call it in." As he said the last line, he turned to look over at the other guard. Before either could react, Rei whipped out the blaster she had kept hidden behind her back and pointed it at the devil who was already in the process of reaching for his comlink. A single shot was fired, causing his head to whip back. The other guard had just managed to get his hand on his own blaster when Rei fired a second shot and caught the second guard in the shoulder, causing him to fall back and stagger though he fought to get his blaster out and return fire. Rei frowned, disappointed with herself that, even at this distance, she couldn't nail the second shot as she fired a third one at the prone guard, ending his life before he could fully raise his own blaster. A quick breath escaped as she scanned the guard house. She fired again at a holocamera, knowing it was too late to stop her mug from being recorded and broadcast to every branch of law enforcement and military minded groups but at least Clancy and the bounty wouldn't be seen yet.

She turned and motioned for Clancy to get up and join her before walking through the open gate. They wouldn't have much time but right now, whether she liked it or not, this man was probably the best bet she had at both getting paid and escaping before a horde of devils descended upon her to inflict the stuff of bad folk tales and urban legends. Which I have no desire to try and disprove right now. Checking the charge of her pistol, she waited for Clancy to get within earshot before asking, "Okay, I got us in, where to now?"

"Of course it's a trap." Arkan stated as the Halcyon broke through the planet's upper atmosphere. "We're picking up a group of bounty hunters, all of which have probably seen our faces at one time or another." He said to his pilot.

"So we're knowingly going into a trap. Roger." his pilot replied. "Do I wake up the one reptilian wrecking crew? Or..." He said in reference to Tosk, the Trandoshan sleeping in his quarters behind the cockpit. It had been a year since they found Tosk half dead with his legs blown off laying on the floor of a derelict freighter that had been floating aimlessly somewhere in the empty expanse of space known as the Open Sea. The whole concept of Arkan being his Ghrakhowsk, and the concept of life debts in general still made Arkan feel a bit uneasy about the whole thing, or maybe it was just the fact that he could talk to a Trandoshan without being on the business end of a concussion rifle.

"I'll wake him up later." Arkan said. "That fight with Doda and Brakko was pretty tense."

"Those derranged Rodians seemed pretty pissed off this time. What did you do?"

"I may have fried Doda." Arkan winced.

Eric's attention snapped from the viewport and over at Arkan. "You KILLED his son?" a bewildered Eric said.

"Hey. Nobody shoves a blaster in my face and gets away with it. That's a fact."

"So what do you call that business on Phaeda when one of The Twins shoved a blaster in your face?"

"Negotiations."

"Nar-Shadda? Tattooine?"

"...Bodgen?" A synthetic voice inquired from the end of the corridor. "I seem to remember one Jig Gracen forcing his blaster into your mouth." The droid said, before playing a audio track of Arkan's choked up words from it's memory banks.

"What's with this Sith Inquisition? And remind me to have your memory wiped Quads. Is that hyperdrive fixed yet?"

"Three of the twelve axial stabilizers require replacement, and they have for approximately 35 cycles."

"We'll pick them up after we get paid." Arkan promised. "We'll just have to rely on the class 3." He said as the clouds parted revealing the spanning metropolis of Montellian Serat. "I just hope that'll be fast enough." Arkan said as he stood up from his chair, and opened a nearby wall compartment next to the ships control console. "Set it down at these coordinates." Arkan said, sliding the datapad over to Eric.

"We're not landing at the spaceport?" Eric asked as the Halcyon made a hard bank to the left toward one of the city's many industrial zones.

Arkan shrugged. "It's where they want to be picked up. Now lets get there before the Seccers start wondering why we haven't landed yet." He said. "Quads. See what you can do with those Engines. I don't want us to be sputtering when they get here."

"They're gonna stink." Eric sighed, gently increased the ship's speed. As the repair droid trudged back down the corridor.

*********

Arkan looked at chronometer, staring out the viewport of the Halcyon with his macrobinoculars at the hundred and fifty meter stretch between his ship and the slated drainage chute that ran from the outside of the city's innards. A drainage chute that he was expecting a number of honest and reputable bounty hunters to be coming through shortly. A single chirp from the supplied communit came to his ears. The voice on the other end did not seem happy, "You're late, and if we hadn't a snag or two of our own we'd be docking your pay."

"We had Engine trouble." Arkan snapped. Engine trouble was putting it lightly, The firefight they had gotten into with Brakko over Terminus had been close, A proton torpedo had glanced off of one of the Halcyon's engines, nearly taking the ship with it. "Snag?" Arkan asked trying to change the subject "What kind of fucking snag are we talking about here?" He repeated seeking to put the Agent on the Defensive. "You didn't say anything about getting shot at. I'm expecting Hazard pay." Arkan stated. "Or I can pack up and leave you."

Another voice cut in. "I think that'll be quite enough of that, Dampson, I'll take it from here with the assets. As for snags, Arkan. I doubt you'd leave anyway, You have too much professionalism from Corsec for that. We both know that for a fact."

Arkan seemed to be taken aback "Why did you say my name over an open channel? And do I know you?"

"First it's a subspace com, you'll be returning it; and the encryption buffer so you're fine. For the second, I selected you for this job for a reason, Arkan. So I guess I would know you a little better then you think."

Arkan hissed a bit with frustration, "Who are you? Why were we hired by a third party for this job?"

"You once knew me as a hacker that tried to help your team take back a vessel, and a liner that had been taken over by pirates. One who started opening all the doors and warning you of the traps the bastards set up before they started killing the civilians. Saw on the feed you tossed a few of them out of the hanger, even scrambled the feed so those nosy internal types couldn't take your balls off in the courts. I brought you board this mission because you were a straight shooter then, and if it pans out as long as you play it straight with me there will be more chances of work in the future. Are we clear on this Arkan." There was a pause in the line, "I need your help again, so no running off. Right?"

Arkan's eyes widened as the memories came back of boarding the colony ship. The bodies of the children hanging upside down from the ceiling with their eyes burned out and skin peeled off their bones. The pirates responsible for the massacre had surrendered when Arkan and his team finally caught up with them, sitting in a comfy jail cell for half a century seemed like a pretty good fate compared to what they did to those poor bastards. But Nobody on Arkan's team had any intention of letting those psychos go, blowing the lot of them out of the hangar was a better death than they deserved.

"That was you?" A shocked Arkan finally replied. He craned his neck to look at his Pilot. and gave him a Nod. One that simply said 'We can trust him.' before looking back out the viewport toward the storm drain. "Alright, you gotta ride." Arkan finally said. "There's a couple other things I might need from you. But we can talk about that later."

... Onboard the Harmonia...
docked at the orbital space station of Devaron.

Mikka bobbed her head up and down to some jams she found on some datachits. The music was rather loud before, but she had toned it down a little to turn on the holonews. A quick cross reference of the artists and song titles on the holonet before the charming newlady without horns broke into a special report had noted that this particular concerto seemed to have been lost in time, with no full recordings. She wondered how Moira had come across such works, but paid that no mind as the LE-Series repair droid she was told to call 'Fives' had greeted her.

She was also told that without the new mistress' return she would not be able to move the ship. Which was fine with her, as she told the droid it's new mistress was her 'sista' and she was here to help start doing a little ship maintenance. In fact she was up to her elbows in engine grease when the holonews broke into a special report with a marquee scrolling across the screen that caught her attention.

///////// Breaking News////// ///////// Breaking News////// ///////// Breaking News//////
"Hello Everyone this is Lilith Bed e'val from your local holonews station Network 35 coming to you live from Montellan Serat."

Mikka could see a holocamera from a far off view zoom into the center of the city, where a cloud of smoke seemed to bellow around a tall building. She listened in as closely as she could. "It appears there has been an assault on the city's main jailhouse by a series of unknown individuals.

Casualties are reported as high, though officials can tell us the majority of the prisoners are still contained in the Establishment with only a few escapes in what might be the most strange jailbreaks in the history of Montellan Serat. Early responding police forces to the scene were met with heavy resistance."

Mikka watched as the feed switched to a view of a couple of police airspeeders being exploded by missile strikes. Then having the areas from which the strikes occurred quickly hosed with blaster fire from Devaronian gunships.

"For the last half hours, it's been chaos in the streets and all citizens are asked to stay inside until this crisis is over as our security forces respond."

Thellis looked a little pensive for a moment, before she took a gaze out the viewport of the Harmonia. "I hope you're not caught up in all that Moiri Bruri."

Unknown to her at the time, her friend and sister was talking with a rather subdued ISIS agent in the hotel room she had been provided with who felt like she had to nurse a headache for having had some teenage girl get the drop on her. While said agent's partner, one Loran Mortist was dealing with a headache of a very different sort.

~~~ooo~~~

Cremsey shrugged, and seemed to be rather amused by Rei's continued questions. Over the earpiece he had heard that puke talking to their ride out of here, and by now he was wondering if all the snags of the night meant he could silently put a round into the head of his current 'plus one.' But that wasn't guaranteed yet; after all, she did seem to be a much better date then some of the stiffs he had to work with the past couple months.

He chuckled at the way she plugged those guards at the front station. It was beautiful! Absolutely classic.

"Okay, I got us in, where to now?"

"Why are you asking? You in a rush or something? Taking it easy can be helpful for your stress, you know. Are you sure you can't stop and smell the cordite babe?" The woman seemed to glare at him a little, as his eyes glinted amusingly behind the lensed mask of his camoflauge suit. Yes, they did come with a mask, thank you very much. Normally they were tinted and polarized so no one could see one's eyes, but meh. He didn't really think it mattered so much that he had to turn that feature off while carrying a sleeping weight. The rise and fall of the man's chest at least assured the target was still alive. That was all that mattered right now.

The woman seemed to huff a little before her reply. "Maybe, and just maybe, I might be a little perturbed that my face is now probably in the hands of the bastards on the other side of the holocamera and probably delivered to their security net."

Cremsey smiled under the mask, "Oh I don't really think so..."

"What are you on about? Are you going to tell me some invisible friend of yours is going to wave a magic wand and make things better? Any moment now they'll probably put out an A.P.B on me!" Rei drove back with a bitter retort and a growl.

Cremsey shrugged, not really caring. But his eyes already noticed certain things in the environment she hadn't. "Nah, that's not his style. He wouldn't save your mug of a face if he didn't have a use for you. Besides if you're so worried about your looks, I wouldn't bother. Otherwise I wouldn't have seen that high end disruption field generator peeking over the roof of the guardhouse." The woman blinked and looked back towards the guardhouse, where from around the corner a foot poked out. Two distinct flashes of light seemed to burst out of her sight. Briefly illuminating the area as the foot disintegrated into chalky white ash. Cremsey saw the woman put her hand on the pommel of her weapon. "Don't worry, that's probably just a friend getting rid of the bodies before he removes the generator. My guess was that when you killed them the holocamera was already fried."

Rei would hear a distinctive whine of a disruptor powering up behind her. "And that would be my former sniper friend drawing a disruptor on your pretty little head if you don't take the hand off that pistol of yours."

"You are such a dick sometimes Clancy. But at least so far you've gotten the job done. This better be your Plus One."

"Or my dick of a current boss. Our former Invisible Friend you were alluding too. I just call him Smiley. He hates it when I go out on dates and don't tell him about them. Probably a pervert if you ask me- you should probably shoo-" Cremsey said without batting an eye.

"Shut it Agent Arsehole. " the voice interjected, "Did you really have to let her take you in the front door and kill those guards when you knew the side entrance was already ours?"

Clancy shrugged. "The side entrance is ten meters up when the gangway and plasma bridge aren't down. I'd have been a fool to lug this unconscious brick up when the little lady could of shot me in the back when her skills would suffice as a doorknocker. Besides , if she died I could just try to sneak my way up anyways."

"I take it back, you are super Agent Arsehole. Well Miss Plus one. Your damn lucky I'm playing nice right now to protect any assets in the area. But then again, your file says that's quite necessary right now Miss T'shkali. For your information, and your consideration I think you should consider yourself lucky to follow my next order. Stay completely still while you get a nice new necklace. I'll put it on your shoulder, and you'll put it on properly."

Clancy seemed to bark out a bit of laughter, sensing the baleful gaze of the puke on him. He wondered if the plebite was just going to off the woman. But to his dismay, he saw the girl stiffen as something was But was suprised as a small lanyard was lain across the shoulder with a bit of a medallion looking thing. It didn't look like a slave collar. Damn, and he was hoping to make a kinky remark or two. Maybe he should anyways. He opened his mouth to comment. But was rudely interrupted again.

"Shut up Arsehole. Put it on, Miss Plus One. I will expect it's return when you get to the ship." Cremsey saw the man ask.

The lady gingerly put it on, perhaps wondering what it was. But it was quickly answered by the voice of the person behind her. "Wolf-Three-Foxtrot-ISIS-Zero"

Cremsey saw the woman's eyes widen when she heard the code that seemed to activate the necklace. The necklace hummed as it began to emit a dull whine, as the hairs of Rei's skin seemed to stand up. "If you have never heard of it before, it's called a PSG-8487 View Masker. It's also about the best damn things I have available to help keep your identity clear of anything right now, and be glad I keep the habit of keeping assets that are useful. I'd suggest you consider yourself for the next few hours as under the direct employment of the Federation's ISIS."

"Oooh, spoiling all the fun." Cremsey said with a shake of his head, "Why are you breaking protocol? Last I heard you were on the horn with some more pukes you hired to help with the evac."

"I'm not Agent Dickless. The masker and the disortion field is keeping this conversation safe. Besides, the situation's changed. Cell Six is reporting New Republic Intelligence Agents are making headway into the Craxus district of the city, about three kilometers from here. They've narrowed the target's safehouse down to that area. The mission is in danger of being compromised."

Cremsey snorted."You just might have compromised it by telling this bitch, too!"

"Only if she doesn't play ball, and if that happens well- it's hard to remove a View Masker, with an added bonus of having a small detonite charge if she doesn't play nice. Lucky for her, it will only trigger if I or one of the other two agents trigger it or her heart stops. We have them to help hide the evidence, remember?"

"Right. Well can I get the code to make her chest burst? I promise it will happen completely out of love for our wonderful date so far."

"Nope."The man's deadpan response was Cremsey's reply. "Unlike you I treat assets fairly if they prove they can play it straight with me. Having a potential red flag out of Point Nadir is not really considered a good bet unless hedged. But at least I'm giving her a chance to prove herself." Cremsey could almost sense a shrug from the invisible man's direction. By the force he wished the invisibility would relate to his 'boss' shutting up. "Besides, at least this way she has a ninety nine percent chance to be rewarded with the entire bounty on the target. After all, we're not really supposed to be here."

"Well if you aren't going to shoot her and let me keep the body for a souvenir, can I ask what you need us to do?" Cremsey said with a huff. No dead body here, and he was still having to deal with a long winded bastard.

"Get to the warehouse on the far side of the complex. Make sure you dodge the GV3 guardian droids, well normally I just call them dog droids. They got a few on patrol with a guard or two left out in the open. Be careful as they're probably the only thing that will sense you due to the mask I just gave you if you're not in plain sight. Once you get to the warehouse, link up with the two commandos who have the latchcracker to the underground drainage chute already open. From there it's a hundred meters to the edge of the city walls, and then a hundred and fifty to the evac shuttle. Some other Assets we called in. They're competent enough, just don't piss them off. When you get to the ship, I'll need you to wake the mark up and get the safehouse's location from him. Just don't forget he's worth more alive. With all the lives at stake with his information, we can't allow the NRI to get their hands on it. Turn around Miss Plus One."

Clancy saw the lady do so, as out of thin air two capsules appeared. She would reach out and take them quietly. "Take the smelling salts for the prisoner. Just remember even if you have to deal with this asshole behind you, I was never officially here. I'll meet you back at the ship. Just, have the information by the time I reach there and don't let Clancy cause any trouble there. It's a shakey situation as it is."

"Are you saying you trust this bitch more then I?"

"No I trust both your reputations just about equally. Hers just has a higher chance of keeping the mark alive, as you tend to like killing people. Besides, the information is necessary to stop any further attacks elsewhere. Keep the bastard alive if at all possible."

"So what are you going to be doing while we go gallavanting around, huh, Sir" Cremsey said snidely.

"Playing tag with a bunch of E-I- Nine network security droids that I had to dissuade from getting some holofootage of your date here. So get to the ship, get the information, and get ready to get tactical. I cannot afford any more slipups to clean up your messes Clancy. Consider this an order: stop antagonizing the assets today. We have a job to do."

Without further ado, the whine of the weapon shutting down was the last thing Rei would see as a thin veneer of a figure moved off into the shadows. Cremsey would turn to her. "Well shucks, he likes to just ruin all my fun."

For a moment she glared at him. "What you were amazed that the support team was already here waiting... and did something actually useful? If it was up to me, I would have capped you for being so trusting, shame the boss seems to play by different rules. Besides, they're ISIS they're good like that."

The distinctive sound of something small scraping by the roof of the gatehouse was all he needed to know what had just happened, "And that's them moving the disruption field. I'd get a move on Sugah. We don't have much time if the NRI is already sniffing down this mark's hideout then they're probably on our tails as well. Move your pretty little ass and take point and if I might make a request if we run into those dog droids; after you turn those beastly little things into sprockets could you perhaps do some more headshots to the guards to really get that brain matter flying? Or perhaps another heart shot. THAT was classic!"

"I really want to kick you right now."

Under the mask , Cremsey smirked. "Oh did you say kick or kiss? Either way I love a girl that likes it rough. Maybe later, Sugah. Now pucker up, put on the big girl pants, it's time for us to move." A silence stretched between them, before Cremsey did a line from an impromptu little song. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, you mad, or nah? Better get moving now, or so."

As the pair moved off Bleering droid sounds would occur behind them at the gate as out of the closet one U2-C1-series housekeeping droid sauntered out. It had far too long since it's last memory wipe and cursed in binary as it began to vacuum up the gray-white dust its sensors told them had scored the front walk of the establishment. It hated cleaning up human messes. Damn fleshies had no respect, it bleeped, angrily. 'Where were the guards anyways?'

~~~ooo~~~

In the Craxus district , Montellan Serrat....

Three agents were going door to door the neighborhood around the corner from Flotto's Freight and Storage company.

Within the racks of storage unit B-312 Three large forty five meter shipping containers lay stacked in an L shape, with one on the second story crossing both of them. If one looked closely on the inside, they would see entrances cut and welded between the crates and a small spiral staircase leading up into the second story box. Within that cargo container, just to the right of the stairs lay the smooth curves of a Cutlass 9 patrol fighter, boxed in by it's surroundings. The safehouse hadn't been just commissioned for Laret Doravon's use, but also as an escape vector.

Down below were two racks of munitions, a scattergun, and a few grenade attachments for the assorted weapons that were held in armory racks. The entrance was cleverly masked by a series of racks that held ornate, and rather expensive cheeses held in carbonite.

A simple tug of one cheese wheel on the top shelves would ensure entrance to Doravon's safehouse, but that wasn't the most distinguishing feature of the cleverly hidden place.No the most distinguished feature was on a rack, a Juggernaut 510 Combat Power Armor lay next to holotable and a series of heavy duty computer systems.

In the corner, a rather large Battledroid Mk II with the scratched name of 'Sparky' lay on standby. It's sensors linked to another container in the yard which housed Doravon's last surprise; a fully restored HMP Predator Gunship that was to activate if the Cutlass' Engines ever became active or the droid was made inert. The battledroid's red sensors scanned the area once again for sixty seconds, and then shut off as it went back into standby mode as the sounds of starport traffic zoomed overhead.

Arkan sighed as he pulled the marcobinoculars away from his eyes. "Sure taking their sweet time getting here. Eh?" He said, with a lit cigarette dangling from his lips to Eric, who shrugged after looking as his chronometer. It had been nearly 2 hours since they landed, and after the news report flooded the local holonet, it would only be a matter of time before someone sent the local boys in blue to come around and check on them.

"Maybe they didn't make it to the recycling plant?" Eric asked, asked as he grabbed a protein bar and quickly tore off the wrapper. "After that news report, they must have every cop in the city looking for them. " He said before taking a bite of the protein bar. "Any word from your mysterious contact?"

"Nah. Not yet." Arkan said, before taking a final drag of his cigarette and placing it into an upturned piston head he'd converted into an ashtray. Arkan picked up the secured comlink that the Intellegence service had supplied him with and placed it to his lips and whistled. "Oh mister mystery man. We're out here in the middle of nowhere." He said. "If I had known I'd be waiting this long, I would have taken my sweet time getting here." Arkan said, but his words were drown out by the familiar roar of a sublight ion engine from a low flying aircraft. Arkan quickly grabbed the marcobinoculars laying on the flight console and peered out the cockpit. Through the clouds he could make out the silhouette of the iconic X-wing. The Fighter circled the grounded Freighter once, before closing it's S-foils and raced off back toward the city.

"Shit." Arkan cursed. He activated the comm once more. "Yeah. We're fine." Arkan sighed. "We just got buzzed by an X-Wing." He sighed into the comm. "They're probably gonna send someone out to check on us here pretty quick. Have your people wait by the drainage exit."

"This'd better not take long." Mortist growled over the comm. "We have things to take care of."

"I'll take care of it." Arkan said before placing the comlink in the pocket of his black coveralls as he turned to exit the cockpit.

"Should I prep the engines?"

"No. I don't want it to look like we're in a hurry to get outta here." Arkan said as he began stuffing his pockets with various bolts, washers, and spare sockets from a nearby tool box, before entering the Halcyon's living space. He set his SE-14 on the Dejarick table and turned toward the entrance hatch and activated the exit switch. The airlock let out a sharp hiss of air and the boarding ramp whined loudly as it lowered. Arkan casually strolled out, and put on a pair of dirty, oil stained work gloves and began to run the filthy gloves across his face and through his hair as a V-35 courier raced down a nearby hill.

The black and white speeder slowed down as it pulled alongside the Halcyon, and light bar that had been placed on the oversized spoiler flicked on, flooding the area with flashing red and blue lights. "What's the problem fellas?" Arkan said cheerfully as the speeder's doors raised open. Arkan produced a datapad from his breast pocket as the two police officers approched him, with their hands resting on their blaster pistols.

"Is that your registration?" One of the Devorians asked as his partner circled behind him.

"Sure is." Arkan said giving the datapad over to officer. "Everything's there. Licenses, creditals, destination....all that good stuff."

"uh-huh." The Officer nodded. "Why didn't you land at the spaceport?" He asked without looking up from the datapad.

"Group of pirates ambushed us coming back from Terminus nearly fried my engines. I didn't think I could land safely, so I set it down out here."

The second officer came back around and muttered something into the comlink that was clipped to his shoulder. "Where's your crew?" He said as the first officer walked back to the speeder.

"Working on the Hyperdrive." Arkan stated. "The coolant lines took some damage after a torpedo glanced off of our hull, very unstable." Arkan said. "Nearly ripped my ship apart when we activated it, and it could vent hot plasma through the ship's decks."

"And you can't seal it off?"

"Won't do much good." Arkan shook his head. "It's burning at nearly twelve hundred degrees. It'll cut through a bulkhead like a hot vibroknife through butter."

"The reason we stopped you is because there was a jail break." The officer said.

"Really." Arkan's eyebrows raised.

"Yeah." The officer said matter of factly. "You wouldn't mind if we took a look around your ship. Would you?" He asked as his partner returned from the speeder.

"I wouldn't reccomend going inside." Arkan said. Beyond the officer Arkan saw a glint of light reflecting off of the lightbar coming from the sewage exit and immediately recognized it for a rifle scope. Arkan felt the hairs on the back of his neck stiffen "But take a look on the outside." He said after rubbing his nose with a dirty glove. "See for your-" A blaster rifle sang once, sending a crimson bolt colliding into the head of the first officer. The other officer's eyes widened and he reached for his blaster pistol, but the officer's chest exploded before he could free it from it's holster, and another crimson bolt whizzed by Arkan's head.

"Shit! What the fuck!" Arkan cursed as the team of bounty hunters emerged from the sewer's exit. "Who took the fucking shot?"

"That'd be me." A large bounty hunter said confidently as the trio neared the ship. "You can call me Clancy, don't hafta thank me though."

"I had it handled." Arkan sneered. "Put him inside." He growled at the woman, who dragged the unconscious man up the boarding ramp.

"Y'were taking too long." The bounty hunter snorted.

"Shut the fuck up and get this fool." Arkan snapped, pointing at the second officer as he scooped up his datapad. He wrapped his arms around the first officer's body and began sliding the corpse towards the speeder. He opened up the driver side door and grunted as he lifted the corpse inside.

"What'ere you doin'? We gotta go." Clancy urged after placing the second body inside the speeder.

"Fixing your fuckup. Retard." Arkan replied as He reached up onto the speeder's dashboard and with another grunt he yanked a hard drive attatched to the dash cam out of the console and tossed it on the ground, before shattering it with a single stomp. "We're an hour out, so let's hope they don't have another unit nearby." Arkan sighed as he tossed what remained of the hard drive inside the speeder.

"What is going on out there?" Eric asked, helping the woman place Laret on the couch behind the Dejarik table as Clancy and Arkan entered the ship's living space.

"This fucking idiot wasted those two cops." Arkan said quickly stabbing a finger in the air toward the back of Clancy's head. "Prep the engines. We're leaving as soon as King gets here."

"Yer serious?" Clancy stopped. "He's way behind us." he said turning around as the Engine sputtered and quickly died. Clancy let out an obnoxious laugh. "Oh you gotta be kidding me." He said, removing his helmet and placing it on one of the countertops "This scrap heap isn't taking us anywhere. Hell I'd be surpr-" Arkan grabbed Clancy's breast plate and in the same motion reared his head back and sent it forward. Arkan's forehead crashed into Clancy's mouth. The bounty hunter pushed Arkan away and connected a devastating blow to his jaw, that sent powerful vibrations rushing down Arkan's back to his legs and caused him sprawl backward out onto the floor next to the dejarik board.

Arkan reached up onto the table and pulled himself up as he reached for his blaster, but froze after hearing the saftey on Clancy's pistol switch off. "Gimme a reason I shouldn't vape you and scrap your ship." Clancy growled. He looked up as a second pistol charged up, and fired sending a bright blue stun bolt that washed over Clancy's right side that sent him staggering, to the left. It was immediately followed by a second which caused the massive bounty hunter to collapse and fall unconscious.

"Are you done?" The woman grunted pointing her blaster squarely at Arkan as the engines roared to life.

"Yeah. I suppose that could've went better." He sighed, pulling himself up as the woman placed her pistol back in its holster. "I'm Arkan. Thanks." He said, rubbing his bruised jaw

"Sabacc."

"Uh..." Arkan raised an eyebrow. While the smuggler enjoyed a game of chance every now and again, now hardly seemed like the time. "Maybe later?" Arkan replied as Tosk came thundering down the hallway toting an over-sized blast cannon with Eric following close behind, pistol at the ready. "It's fine." Arkan said raising a hand

"Would you shaddup and us out of here?" Came Arkan's sharp reply as he made his way toward the galley, after reaching the open doorway he paused and craned his neck to look at the Trandoshan who had already begun rummaging through the unconscious bounty hunter's possessions and frowned. While Clancy's armor and equipment was almost unlike anything Arkan had ever seen, way to expensive and state of the art for your run of the mill bounty hunter. Did ISIS Source the entire mission? "Throw him in one of the smuggling compartments." Arkan said, as he entered the ship's kitchen. "...AAAnd just take his weapons. I don't want this guy's employers crawling up our asses when this thing is done." He called out into the adjacent room as the engines roared to life.

"What did he do this time?" A new, but familar voice sighed from the other room.

"Had a disagreement." Arkan replied as he opened up a wall panel containing 6 transparisteel containers stacked up on each other, neatly organized by blue, red, and green tape that were tightly wrapped around the containers lids. Arkan quickly grabbed one of the red marked jars and set it on the counter. He put the wall panel back in it's place and walked back into the living space.

"I can see that. Nice mess you left out there. I assume you're taking care of it?" the ISIS agent said as the ground beneath them shifted from the Halcyon lifting off the planet's surface.

"Your boy there left it." Arkan said, as he walked past the Dejarik table, and scooped up one of Clancy's blaster pistols before heading to the Airlock. Looking out, he saw the modified V-38 beneath them with it's lightbar still flashing, Arkan turned the container over on it's side and tugged on a small piece of string, and quickly tossed it out the airlock. The jar broke apart and it's contents ignigted in a small explosion when it made landed on the speeder's hood, engulfing the evidence in a large circle of flame. Arkan tossed the blaster pistol into the fire, then closed the airlock.

"Take us out." He called into the cockpit.

The boarding ramp retracted on the Halcyon as the ship turned around and rocketed toward the skies.

Last edited by John Lauri on 2015-01-19 16:06, edited 2 times in total.

Arkan would rest a moment against the bulkhead of his ship. Taking a look back at "Sabaac' and the man currently displaced on the couch by his dejarik board. It wasn't long before a figure, dressed in similar armor walked into the room looking at the pair of assets, and a trandoshan presently field stripping ‘Clancy's’ stuff.

With a shrug, Arkan heard the man say. "Okay, you can decloak now."

Arkan's eyes widened a little as to his immediate left a hazy image deformed and came into focus, a tall man standing there with a hand upon a pistol, one casually kept aimed at someplace slightly to the left of Arkan's head.

Another decloaked behind 'Sabacc's form, though some distance away. "Well, I am pleased to make both you and your crews acquaintances. However, the only bad thing I can see about this situation is that technically I still have to report that Agent Jackass technically completed his part of the mission."
Arkan blinked once, "What?"
The figured turned to him and shrugged, "So is Clancy dead, or just knocked out?"

Arkan blinked again, "He took his pistol across my face, pointed it at me and told me to take off. Girl stunned him while I was on the ground."

The mercenary heard the other man sigh loudly, and then raised his hand to his head. "Well I'm glad you only stunned the lug, otherwise the two commandos would probably have killed you and the rest of your crew. Speaking of which," Arkan saw the man turn towards the two other figures, "Why did you let Clancy do something like that anyway?"

“He still had tactical command, you didn't take that away yet. So we just followed his lead. Even if it sorta got us in a bit of a cluster frack."

"Well, at least you didn't make the girl's chest burst."

"Nah, asshole had it coming. Though that's not going in my report."

Arkan saw King pull up his mask enough to smile as he let out a bit of laugh while shaking his head, "Yeah, nor mine either, but I'll still include the details in later for his psych reevaluation."

Arkan watched as the man he placed as King, at least by the voice, turned towards "Sabaac'. "Wake the target up please and get some information on his safehouse , the where, the what, any defenses it might have. Arkan, I'm going to have to ask you to have your crew take us towards the Craxus District of the City. Cell Six just reported they have two more NRI teams sweeping the area for the information this bastard has. Guy didn't just set up a spy ring in some systems, but also set up some home grown terrorists as well.

"Could get hot. They might have an APB out on my ship."

"If we don't get anything back, and keep the data out of the Reps hands, plenty of innocents could die... As for the A.P.B..." Arkan saw the man look towards the two now identified commandos. "Did you at least cover the tracks?"

"You saw me burn the car, and the weapon."*

Arkan saw King give a shake of his head, "Not you, them."
"Yeah distortion field was up, so was the com interceptor. Whole time they were talking to me and I sent a false report back. Said that their were pirates in the area and the ship was a merchants that got damaged and they were sending it on to the spaceport. I say we've got about twenty minutes till they send another squad to check up."

Arkan nodded, surprised that at least the commandos seemed competent. "They probably logged my Ship's IFF in their database. So they'll be looking for us when they find out what happened. It's what we did in CorSec."

Arkan saw the commando shrug at an unvoiced question as King glanced at him. " Of course, I was improvising. Woulda' been easier if you were on task cracking the communications. As long as the ship’s at the spaceport there's a chance of playing it off."

"Routing a droid or two with a bit of rad dampening foam might work. Though it would limit our ability to make it to the site the NRI's searching." The other commando piped up.

Arkan saw King turn towards him, "I guess by now you could figure it out by the hardware, but we're not exactly the common group of bounty hunters."

"They're ISIS." Sabacc hissed from the sidelines as she glared at the prisoner.
"Guessed that." Taking out his pack of smokes, Arkan palmed one into his hand before shaking his head. "So what do we do with this guy?" Arkan asked, indicating Laret with the cigarette clenched in between his index and middle finger.

"Get the information. You're probably as good an interrogator as I am due to your time in CorSec. Right now I'm still getting reports from the other cells we have here."

"This isn't gonna be messy is it? No invisible IT-0 lurking around somewhere?" Arkan took a drag on the cigarra and exhaled the smoke through his nose. "I'd rather not have to scrub his blood off my deck."

Arkan saw King shrug, "Sorry, but No. Technically I'm not ever allowed to tell an asset to get information from anyone, at least by the spirit and laws of things, so I think I and the two commandos will take a quiet walk towards the cockpit with your trandoshan friend and see if we can't run some interference over the coms. Start squawking about some pirates killing the officers or something. Then landing at the spaceport. We'll have to sneak off though, steal a ride and get back to the Craxus District, unless you guys want to try jumping out the hatchway. We're all equipped with some lyra gravity belts, in case we had to jump off a building. I don't think clancy will need his.” He saw King shrug once more. “Should have enough charge to get you and the girl down if you go tandem."

Arkan saw the Trandoshan seem to be staring at them, his gaze moving back and forth between Arkan and the rest of their ship's guests. He seemed to hiss a bit , like waiting to ask a question. Only for King to hold up a hand, "I don't think the Trandoshan could come along then, as the charge might not be enough for one of his bulk... though maybe one of the commandos would be willing to give it a try."
"He is quite a big one, isn't he?" one of the commandos joked.
"I can steal a ride." Arkan said. "The question remains, is that at the starport, or do we jump out on the way?"
"We'll drop you over the safehouse and and meet up with you, or my pilot could squeeze us right next to the safe house. Land on his front lawn, get the shit, get out."

"I'm all for that actually, long as you're both willing to earn some hazard pay. Consider it a bonus. But in order for that to happen we need to know where the guy's front lawn is first. Final decision's yours either way. " With those words Arkan saw King walk past the trandoshan and give the sentient a friendly pat on the shoulder. He started whistling as the two commandos followed him out , as Clancy was now safely stowed in a smuggling compartment. "Guess it's time for that walk now, huh?"
Without a word Arkan turned towards the target, and the girl. "Might be messy, but I imagine we don't want to get too rough."

"Of course, he's worth too much alive. His name’s Lorat."

"I'll have to remember that." Arkan said as he advanced on the mark... cracking his knuckles, stretching his neck as he was about to begin. For her part, he saw the girl grab the man by the hair and shove some smelling salts under his nose, bringing him to wakefulness with a sputtering cough and a retch before slamming his head down once on the dejarik board before tossing him back on the couch. If she was playing the bad cop, maybe he should be playing the good.

If she was playing the bad cop so to speak, maybe he should be playing the good?

Putting a grin on his face, Arkan began the age old seduction tactics he learned back in CorSec with a smile.

~~~ooo~~~

Within the confines of the hotel several kilometers away, Moira and Eva Worthington were receiving a call about the status of a mandalorian child and a Verpine. A verpine who was to be ushered back to the room they were. On the holoplot, news stories about the ongoing chaos in the city were basically having newscasters talk a lot about knowing nothing and replaying several bits of footage over and over again of the chaos surrounding the main jail near the Hall of Justice. On occasion the two exchanged ideas about a certain Minister’s offer, only calling off their discussion on the diplomatic complexities it might assist in smoothing over when they heard the doorbell rang. Eva hid herself in the refresher station while the echani girl wondered how she would explain this twist to the insectile like sentient.

"You didn't break my Dejarik table, Didjya?" Arkan said, as if he were chastising a child. He took a step over to one of the durasteel cabinets that rested against the wall behind the couch. Arkan slid the door open, revealing a variety of liquor bottles of various different colors. Arkan frowned, most of the bottles were empty, Eric must have been indulging a bit too much during the long hours of hyperspace travel. "Ah." Arkan exclaimed extending his hand to the very back of the cabinet. He wrapped his fingers around the neck of an unmarked bottle, half empty with a clear liquid. He brought it out of the cabinet and removed the cork, and placed it too his nose and shuddered as his nostrils were overpowered by burning sensation of strong alcohol masked by a disgusting citrus scent.

"Where am I?" Laret asked him as Arkan pulled the Chair Tosk had been sitting on, and the ash tray on the table next to it, and placed it on the other side of the Dejarik table and sat down opposite of Laret, setting the bottle on the table.

"Aboard the Halcyon." Arkan replied casually.

"Who are you?"

"They call me Arkan. My employers hired me and..." Arkan gave a low whistle as he pointed over to the woman sitting next to him with a bored expression on her face. "..Her. To save you from getting ripped apart by the Quarra."

"Who hired you? NRI?" Laret asked.

"Why are you so tense man?" Arkan smiled "Have a Drink." He said gesturing to the bottle.

"I'm fine."

"I insist." Arkan asserted and without saying a word, the woman grabbed Lorat by his hair and pulled his head back, and forced the neck of the bottle down the prisoner's throat. After a few seconds of retching and gagging she quickly pulled the bottle out and threw his head forward. "Y'know this could go so much better for you if you just answer my questions." Arkan advised. "Could actually be quite pleasant."

"People start dying." Arkan grimaced. "I already have one of your accomplices stuffed underneath my floor panels, he's still alive, but I can toss his body overboard with the push of a button. So I'll ask you one more time. Where is your safehouse?"

"No accomplice of mine, I don't want to go back."

"No loyalty at all to someone who risked getting you out of the fire, eh? That's a load of shit. People like you and me have a bit of respect for our longest termed employers. We don't give it up that easily unless circumstances force our hands to walk away. Now back to that safehouse."

"What the fuck do you know about loyalty?"

Arkan cuffed the man with an open palm upside the head "Don't give me the tough guy attitude, this is simply about past business."

"Hmm, you mean like those Bothans?"

Arkan rationalized this was a test of sorts, so he promptly nodded to Sabaac to give the man another drink. While it was likely the former NRI agent would have dealings with Senators, all to receive some patronage for his plans, or off the books dealings the NR seemed to like to pretend never happened. There was no way an operative as trained as Devaron was wouldn't try to catch him in a lie. It was just a principle of playing the game. When the man sputtered out the last of the alcohol, Arkan tilted his head enough to rest one arm to the crook of his palm. "Don't insult both our intelligences, I don't work for a Senator with the Bothan's behind them, you know Borskie went to the other side awhile ago. No, you know who I mean."

"The Hutts."

"Damn right the Hutts!" Arkan said with a small snarl, his eyes piercing into Devaron's gaze."You know very well they don't like loose ends in their businesses. But I'll take a step back. What did you mean by the Bothans, you got any leads on some good intel, maybe I'll deliver you back to your death sentence." He fingered the hilt of his blaster, "Or give you a chance to end it yourself like a man of honor, like a soldier. But a spook like you wouldn't go for that, so how about I stop and pick up a cyanide pill?"

Devaron blinked once, then twice more, his gaze weighing Arkan. "You probably know by now there was a rogue group of Bothans with a secret project or two."

"Anyone who knows anything knows that the Federation got their teeth kicked in by that Jen'Vey fellow. So make it special information, and include the details of your safehouse while your at it."

"Only if you let me be executed."

Arkan flashed the man a smile, "Depends on the intel. Now spill."

"Alright, well the Bothans seemed to have a bit of a New Generation Project of their own going. Utilizing captured natural telepaths as means to keep their projects safe. But that's not all..."

"Not really relevent to me, but go on."Arkan shrugged, wondering where this was going, but he kept the puzzlement out of his face.

"Well some Bothan hardliners took that a bit too far, even capturing a few dna strands of the last bothan jedi of the old republic. They got it from an old Ubiquitorate site. Anyways, we found out they intended to make some altered clones. Trying to create their own force users they could train and only let out during Ar'krai. Turns out they had dealings with slavers to go after valued targets, those telepaths I was referring too. Any they found to be force sensitive they sent on to be trained at a site where the first generation of altered clones were at."

"Interesting." Arkan mused dryly. "Can't train a runt without a teacher and all the teachers are dead."

"Word is they found an old sith holocron for that purpose, hence why NRI was so interested, didn't tell the jedi though. Not without proof." The captive said before shaking his head side to side, as if trying to clear his thoughts. "Anyways, I don't know where the site is, but I do know something. With the egg on their face they're pushing for some more slaver raiding parties to go after a few more 'useful tools.' You probably heard about it from the Hutts."

Arkan looked a little perplexed, he might have to pass this onto that King fellow. One thing was for sure, he wasn't letting this turncoat go anytime soon. The information he had was too valuable. "I know my normal contacts are looking for some hire ons to take a target of some interest, no word on details though. What about you, they say you were looking to stir up trouble too. Ain't that about right?"

"You mean in the federation... yeah." the man said, "I got a few ruffians ready to play hardball on a dozen different worlds. Trained them how to do it too. Should cause quite the chaos in a few years."

'So King had been telling the truth on that part of it.' Arkan thought, just glad that it seemed the man was a straight shooter. He began to suspect that he could have been the voice on the com so many years back. "I'm sure the Hutts might get a few concessions from the Jedi or the rest of the NR military. Probably ask them to clear out some pirate bases or something out by Termenius Station for such information. Saving them from doing the dirty work, as well as washing their hands. So tell me about now, why did you have that change of conscience? You really waste those people, or are you just taking the credit like a coward because you just want to die?"

The captive's eyes blazed with anger, "What the frack do you know about it?"

"Shit, in you're line of work you probably killed tons of men, women and babies in your time then just those on Devaron. So what made these so special?"

There was a pause, as the fire in the man's eyes went out. Arkan could sense he was getting close to the information he wanted. "There was a child, no more then three years old, torn in half, holding onto my neck with two arms. I tried to get her out but... I watched as the life faded from her eyes along with the blood drenching me. I had underestimated the
blast radius. It was a simple miscalculation on my part from a long series of days with a lack of sleep getting close to the target... But..."

There was a short pause before Arkan interjected softly. "But it broke you."

The man in front of him gulped once, hard. "Yeah. Yeah it did."

"So how do I know that's not just some spiel garnered to get my interest? Could be the NRI just wants to clean up their mess with those Bothan's. Who are they going after anyways?"

The damn Kiffar, and those Zeison Sha."

Arkan snorted. "Prove it. Why languish here in prison on a world which can kill you if out there some other people are going to be hurt, enslaved, or worse? It makes no sense for a man that wants redemption to give a damn about six innocents when he could save much more. Hell, I bet you have dirt on the Hutts too, if you got this much on the Bothans." Arkan said

"The man seemed to shake with the unspoken accusation he was still being a coward if one read between the lines. "Yeah, in my files."

"Where are the files?"

"In my safe..." the man trailed off.

"In your safehouse, which is what I'm after too. I'll make you a deal, I get to keep my employers and the Senator in their pocket out of this mess and maybe I'll find a means to get that information to the jedi, or someone else who might stop what's going to go down. I'm also betting from your words this isn't the first time the Bothans have gone after the Kiffar, or these Sha people or whoever."

"Old Jedi descendants that got stranded on their homeworld. Empire tried to wipe them out, so the Bothans tried to get them on the Rebellion's side. They were met with the same scorn as the Sha gave the Jedi. Those people really don't much care for the galaxy at large, though some work their way through into the mercenary , or trading business.

"Worthless without proof. So... the safehouse? Then I might actually give you a drink you can drink on your own without actually having a bit of help there. I will warn you I intend to stun your ass till the information proves true or not. That's just how the game is played. You understand." Arkan

There was a long silence, "Yeah, that's just how the game is played. Whatever happens, no NRI right?"

Arkan smiled a large smile, "Of course not. I'd not want my employers interests threatened, you know that. So now to the safehouse?"

The man started rattling off what Arkan needed, including a list of the defenses and access codes that he casually wrote down on a nearby plastisheet.

"Sorry friend, but time's short. I'll get you that drink when we get back." Arkan turned to look at Sabaac, and nodded once before the woman pulled her blaster and shot the Agent on stun.

"Eric." Arkan called up to the cockpit. "We're going to the Craxus District."

My apologies Chaz. I was trying to catch you in chat one night to write this out Chaz, also hoping for an appearance from fini for an eleventh hour post. Ah, that's life.

"You got to jump now, Arkan! Jump and aim for the lights I just put on." came Jack King's voice over the comline as the mercenary stood on the lowered loading plank of his ship. Around his waist was one of the ISIS commandos lyra gravity belts.

"What's the hurry? Can't we just land?" he spat.

The sounds of blaster fire came over the comunit, causing Arkan to raise an eyebrow."I'm a little busy right now. Got some shadows to deal with. Get the package and get out."

"Sithspit. I knew this was going to go fucking sideways."The mercenary let out a curse as he looked below at the sprawling expanse of the compartment yard. The ISIS agent had leapt out earlier then the rest to make his way to the freight yard's offices, and had said he'd radio back with the information for which block the safehouse was in. Well, from the look of things, one block of freight modules just lit up like a life day tree. Colored in red.

A certainly ominous color.' he thought, as the ship burned ions to reach a position above a small empty plaza in front of it. Hovering under it's own power as the two extendable cannons powered up, Arkan's crew in the cockpit searching for targets.

"I see the lights, preparing to jump. Can I get a sitrep? Fuck, would I even get my payment without you around? Should we drop to support you?"

More blaster fire and the sounds of a dull grunts of pain came over the coms. "Don't worry, you'll get paid either way. Anyways. I got an idea for exfil on my own. Don't let the target of interest get into enemy hands, innocent lives are riding on this. Remember? You and that Trandoshan finish the job. Be warned, we got sweep teams coming in, one I just killed looked armed with heavy blasters. Going mobile now."

With that the com cut out with the sound of breaking glass and a little bit of a click as in the distance, an explosion seemed to take place in the corner of the warehouse where the offices were.

"Shit. That guy is crazy." the mercenary cursed before glancing to the side to his Trandoshan friend, who merely hissed at him.

"Hunt now. Many points! Let the feddie get his own points, he'd be too tough to kill today."

"You and that damned scorekeeper of yours." Arkan spat before glancing out the hatch.

With a flex of his legs, he jumped and hit the toggle on his belt. It was a few seconds of vertigo and the acceleration of free fall before he felt the tugging yank at his navel as the generator's repulsors whined loudly enough to arrest his momentum. Leaving the landing at a heavy jostle that bent him at the knees. He made sure to keep his tong on the inside of his teeth so as not to bite himself. Bleeding to death was never in the cards.

"Enemy, There!" The Trandoshan cried as he pointed in a direction. In the distance, a shadowy figure seemed to jump on top , aiming a small bar like object at Arkan's ship.

Arkan shouted into his mike, "Break!"

The warning was just in time as the tell tale scream of a plex rocket , trailed past the banking freighter, spiraling away to detonate in the distance. Luckily amongst some of the other freight containers, and not towards the stream of traffic heading towards the spaceport in the dim light of the night time lights or to the various neighborhoods around the district, which was a subdistrict sandwiched close to Montellian Serat's ancient walls that had stood for hundreds of years.

He'd spray half a clip of his rifle at the figure, cursing as it leaped back into cover, probably to reload.

"We should forget these nest wreckers, go for the precious eggs ourselves." The trandoshan said, gesturing to the access panel of where Arkan had gained the codes.

He shook his head to clear it, "Yeah, two minutes to clear it, get the data, and get out. Boys, make sure you keep our bird safe. Worse comes to worse we'll bug out on foot or something!"

Four minutes total, while holding off NRI agents, and search teams that would sooner see him and his crew dead or worse, captured with that bounty on his head raised a little.

Something that might one day become just another day at the park, if he had any future contracts. But such was lost in the mysteries of the future. For now, he had to get his act together.

As he punched in the code, and tugged a specific cheese wheel his leg passed a laser sensor which tripped. In another freight container droid like eyes whirred to life as the silent alarm was tripped. It's sensors reaching out through the container's hidden sensors for signs of trouble as another rocket was launched at Arkan's ship. Repulsors began to whine as the HMP Predator Gunship came to life.

Explosive bolts triggered, bringing it out to open as it began it's hunt, classifying targets, and risks. It's first sensor sweep looked on towards Arkan's vessel, and it began to autotarget it as the most immediate threat. At least until a threat indicator came from it's life as the next rocket was released towards it. Autoguns began tracking, tracing fire through the night as the blast intercepted the rocket, exploding it short of the gunship. Autocannons tracked the moving figure below and let loose a hail of counterfire along with a speeding missile.

The blast immolated the NRI agent as it's sensors swept for more targets.

In his earpiece Arkan would hear his pilot's swears as his vessel made a sweeping manuever to place a few of the largest stacks between it and the prowling gunship as the HMP Predator began it's singular purpose. Killing any threat it perceived.

~~~ooo~~~

In the hotel attached to the hospital one Moira Drakengard gave a sigh of relief at the Insectoid's understanding of the situation and made a call back to the Devaronian Minister to firm up her transport.

The diplomatic mission was to be held on Vendikar station, and she would be on her way in an hour. The girl, the Verpine, would take the Harmonia with Mikka there in the Morning safe from all worries till the situations on Devaron blew over.

"There's an escape ship, six rows down, container Echo-9-Zero-4-2-Bravo. It only seats one but it should have enough firepower to take care of the droid." Two of the men looked over at Rei as the report was relayed to everyone's ear piece. They had just gotten into the safehouse and now they wanted her to go out and find another ship?

"Oh no. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Her protests were met with the sound of an explosion as an errant missile, probably from the NRI group infiltrating the storeyards attempted to shoot at the droid but missed if the sound of heavy return fire was indication of anything. One of the men simply told her to get on it and shoved her back outside, slamming the metal doors behind her before she could even react- which was probably just as well as she would have shot him in the kneecaps, or tried to at any rate.

Slamming her back against a massive class-A cargo container, Rei fumbled for her pistol for a brief moment while mentally recalling everything she was carrying on her person at this particular moment. Yep, left my one-shot rocket launcher in my other suit, she thought sarcastically to herself as the gunship disguised as a droid- or was it droid disguised as a gunship?- made a low sweeping pass, it's anti-personnel cut down another NRI agent somewhere in the distance. So much for getting here first. Clutching her pistol with both hands, Rei listened for the droid, using the sounds of its repulsors to give her an indication of its location and bearing. It was traveling away from her so she quickly darted down an adjacent row of stacked cargo containers, her light steps barely carrying past her own ears. Over the earpiece, she could hear cussing, swearing and all sorts of profanities from various individuals. "You kiss your Momma with that mouth," she put in, unable to hold back any longer.

"Hey, why don't you just do you job!"

"Sji'va." It wasn't often Rei fell back to her Nagaian tongue but there were instances she found the odd word of phrase slipping out, usually when she was having a particularly bad day. The sound of the droidship started to close in and Rei quickly squeezed herself between a narrow opening between two crates, ducking out of sight just as it passed overhead, firing its laser cannons at their transport, causing another torrent of profanity to spill out. The urge to shoot the droid made Rei point her blaster up but calmer, more rational thoughts prevailed. She knew her own gun play well enough to know that she'd need to land an incredibly lucky shot to so much as damage it. A frag grenade might do something and it did have a massive saucer shape on the top that she could probably lob something onto it but again, it was only a fragmentation grenade, it wouldn't do a whole lot of damage. Eh, just save the ammo you desperate fool. Running further, she saw another figure come from out between a set of crates.

Rei lifted her pistol and fired a trio of shot without breaking stride. A Twi'lek dressed in black combat fatigues that looked very covert forces fell to the ground, her expression twisted into one of shock at having been taken by surprise as Rei darted past. The sounds of blaster fire attracted the droid's attention and Rei just managed to duck out of sight as a hail of anti-personnel blaster fire rained down, pinging off the metal crates and duracrete they sat atop of. Still, that wasn't good, the droid now had a fix on her location as it quickly sailed over, it's tip mounted lasers continuing to fire upon the evac vessel. Reaching up, Rei removed a grenade from her chest and pulled the pin with her thumb, priming it, her heart racing. Just as the droid emerged, she tossed it into the air above in a high arc. The droid's sensors saw the grenade appear and, sensing the worst, quickly strafed away from it. When it exploded, it did so in a shower of thick smoke and tiny slivers of shiny aluminium flecks. The droid paused for a moment, the thick smoke rendering its visual sensors blind and the small aluminium flecks reflecting its other sensors such that it could no longer rely on what it was detecting. Were there a hundred targets suddenly there or just two? The unknown ship was still a known constant that needed to be destroyed so it focused on that.

Taking off, Rei could hear more blaster fire somewhere in the distance. Once again, the droid was attracted to it but it had to navigate its way a little differently, taking care to pass the strange zone of interference. Reaching the indicated set of crates, she punched in the same code that was used to try and open the safehouse doors. Just as the large door swung open, two black clad NRI operatives emerged, suppressed carbines raised at them. Reflexively, she raised her blaster pistol and layed down suppressing fire. The NRI fired back but the large metal door acted as a very durable shield and afforded her a great deal of protection. Looking up, she could see the droid in the distance, its focus more on the freighter though its other sensors were sweeping the area. Grinning, she pointed her blaster at the droid and fired a few shots- and surprising herself when one of the five actually struck the droid in the rear. That got its attention as it spun around to face her but by then, she had vanished inside. She quickly slammed her hand into the console that would trigger the doors to close back up again and ducked inside, only realizing after the fact that she was probably trapping herself now.

A few glowlamps flickered to life just as Rei slammed the butt of her pistol into the controls, hoping it would jam the door shut, or at least buy them some time if the droid floating around didn't help them do that first. As the lights brightened, the small bulk of a starfighter became visible, a cutlass-9 patrol fighter with a distinctive white paint job sat, it's forward sweeping wings contained a pair of heavy laser cannons but Rei didn't know enough about the ship to really understand what else it possessed. "Annnnd of course I forget to tell them I don't really fly," she thought, rubbing the back of her neck with her blaster hand. Hanging on a nearby shelf was a helmet and a flightsuit though now was hardly the time to get changed. Grabbing the helmet, Rei wasn't surprised that it was a good two sizes too big but tightened it on as best she could before something else caught her eye.

"Ah, could have used you bad boys a few minutes ago," she mused as she picked up the straps that were connected to two single-shot launchers. They were unguided rockets but they would pack enough punch to take out the droid if it came down to it- Or, more likely the case, I come crashing down to it trying to fly that thing. Activating the fighter's outside controls, she was glad she managed to get the cockpit canopy to slide open though with only two buttons on the panel, it was hard to mess that one up. Jumping inside, she looked at the dizzying array of controls. Rei had some experience flying ships, having flown a handful of starfighters once on a couple jobs. She was no fighter ace, her battles were better fought on the ground, blasters in hand, but she had enough skill to not get vaped into spacedust.

"Okay, yeah, you can do this." Her efforts to try and mentally reassure herself were met with the sounds of more blaster fire outside. Flicking a few switches, she waited a moment and when nothing happened, she got on the comms and said, "Uh, guys, maybe we ditch the fighter idea."

"We can't," one of them shot back.

Trying another combination of switches unsuccessfully, Rei threw her arms up in exasperation and demanded, "And why the hell not?"

"It's got some coordinates stored on its nav computer that we need to retrieve as well."

Rei felt her chest sink."Oh, now you tell me! Sjali!"

"What?"

"What do I care?" she translated.

"Remember that necklace?"

Slamming her fist into the side of the cockpit wall, Rei was sorely tempted to call their bluff. If the ship was so important, they wouldn't ditch it but then, if they got to it and she wasn't there, they'd probably detonate it out of spite. "Jirisbradh-rebradi-evern-bradash-zuje-brck," she muttered as her hands swiftly worked the controls of the starfighter.

"What?"

"It means shut the fuck up!" she spat. It didn't of course, it was a little longer winded than that simple phrase but it would take five times the words. Just then, she found the proper combination of controls and the fighter started to thrum to life and good thing too as the doors to the collection of crates blew open, probably from some detonation charges. Finding the shield toggle, Rei activated the shields just in time to absorb the small arms fire she received. Okay, throttle, control stick, now how do I get the doors above me to open? She looked around for some sort of control that would allow her to open up the hatch above to enable her to exit the crate but, by now the situation was rapidly deteriorating as the others were barking at her to get moving and to cover the evac ship. "Sji'va..." she muttered as she depressed the trigger on the control stick, sending flying two underpowered medium laser bolts that slammed into the thin metal walls of the crates. Glancing at the weapon charge indicators, she saw the lasers barely had a quarter their charge and likewise the shields were hardly up past ten percent.

Still, even at reduced power, the medium laser cannons were enough to punch gaping holes in the welded together collection of crates that served as a hidden hanger. Giving the cutlass some forward throttle, Rei eased the ship out of the hole she made and emerged back outside. The NRI operatives below her were still trying, ineffectually, to take her down with their blasters. Though their blasters weren't entirely useless as the shields were still struggling to build charge past ten percent. The droid that had been hounding everyone had seen her easily by now and was turning its guns to bear. Rei depressed the right pedal to spin her own craft about and bring her own laser cannons to bear. Unfortunately the droid had the advantage of having turrets and was already shooting at her first, it's double lasers slamming into her own craft and crippling the shields. Firing back, the return lasers were much stronger and had no problem punching through the armoured hull of the droid, destroying the laser cannon shooting her and punching several holes into the shallow saucer, causing it to lose stability. The small arms fire below was starting to find a few sensitive parts in the undercarriage of her now unshielded fighter so Rei threw the throttle forward and was immediately slammed back into her seat as the cutlass took off.

"Woah! she exclaimed, pulling back on the control stick to avoid crashing into the struggling droid, and any other shipping containers. As she rose up, her sensors started to kick in and the screen displayed a lot of dots with the bulk of them somewhere in the distance beyond the container yard, but a lot of those dots were slowly moving towards the yard. "Uh... Guys, if I'm reading my sensors right, and I would really like to think I am, I think we've got company closing in on our position."